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We Love America

Monday, July 06, 2009

As mentioned on Martha's blog, our dad absolutely LOVES Independence Day. He admitted last year that he actually loves July 4th more than Christmas, the most magical day of the year. This is big, people. (Technically, I consider the most magical time of the year to be Christmas Eve, but you get my point.)

Every year, my parents' neighborhood has a July 4th parade, complete with the following:

1. a float on which the Queen of Pidgeon Estates rides, chosen by the one-woman committee of my mom (and yes, Martha has been the queen, and no, I have not. My parents came up with this brilliant idea after I became a matron.)

2. my dad and mom's community band (in which they play trumpet and percussion, respectively)

3. hamburgers/hot dogs and dessert contest

4. fire truck which leads the parade around the block, and afterwards sprays water for the little kids to run through

5. and this year, dunk tank and crafts fair

[Every five years, Uncle-Sam-on-Stilts joins us to contribute balloon animals for the kids.]

I doubt my parents will ever move to another neighborhood because of this very event. This year completed the 17th annual. Because of all of my dad's hard work, my parents were presented with Mr. and Mrs. Uncle Sam statues by the other lady who organizes it. See the sheer joy in my dad's face below?

Martha and I participated in the crafts fair, with Martha's onesies and my stationery. We got several good leads and had fun looking at the other wares for sale. I got the most adorable pin cushion from handmadebychristine! (She's got an etsy shop too.)

I also entered the dessert contest, and won! The prize this year was a rack of ribs smoked and prepared by the neighborhood mailman, who happens to be a world-class barbecue master. Absolutely superb, they were. The winning dessert was a strawberry-blueberry pie. (In the picture below, there is a bite taken out of it FYI.) Thanks, Beth, for the recipe!

I won't even really go into explaining how the whole neighborhood has American flags on the light poles from Memorial Day through the end of July, another of Steve's brilliant ideas.

After naps and plenty of water, we headed back outside to join the Turman/Humber/Srnka/Guinn/Carter/Jerkins clan annual July 4th cookout and kickball game. As always, the kickball game resulted in a "tie," but homemade ice cream, watermelon, fireworks, and Lori's delicious sugar cookies were no less enjoyable without the W.

A truly successful day celebrating our country. I cannot imagine celebrating July 4th without the parade, and now the Kickball Cookout.

6 comments:

Love this (and martha's pics, too!). Your parents are hilarious. That is some kind of event. Maybe your dad should run for Mayor of Memphis. I mean, if he can do that with a neighborhood parade, just think of the possibilities...:)

wow leslie, you all go HUGE for the 4th! how very all american it all was, and very cute! i was back in kansas city for the holiday, at a big park with a picnic, live music, and a huge fireworks display. always a nice and relaxing holiday.